Pimlico Flats on Facebook
Last year I wrote about the changing face of London Flat Rental Advertising. In a series of 3 articles I traced the history of how to find a London Flat to rent informing both tenants and landlords where they should be looking for flat rental.
In particular I predicted the death of Gumtree, dragged down by the predominance of scamming adverts. Originally Gumtree’s success was founded on a combination of free advertisements, and community, basing itself around cities and providing newcomers with a source of information on everything that they might be looking for. Gumtree still continues, with the new Beta version being commented on, and it’s charges ever increasing to cover the costs of the site revamp. It continues to succeed because it’s only major competitor – Craig’s List, – is just as plagued with scammers, and considerably harder to navigate, but now there is an alternative that might just sink Gumtree for all it’s new investment. Facebook Marketplace.
OK – I’ll be honest, not new – just new to me. Facebook Marketplace was set up in May 2007, and in March 2009 ownership transferred to Oodle, a specialist Internet Classifieds website. It runs integrated with Facebook, and listings on Facebook Marketplace are syndicated onto Oodle’s website as well. The reason that I have chosen to highlight Facebook’s Classifieds as the website that will sink Gumtree is …… trust.
The biggest problem with trading on the internet is that of trust, and maybe Facebook have cracked the problem. A Facebook/Oodle Classified Ad comes vouched for by the Facebook ID that listed it, so the advertiser is no longer as anonymous as a Gumtree Ad. with a Hotmail eMail contact.
That strikes me as a powerful USP when you are looking to rent a London Flat.
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[...] problems are plaguing Craigslist in the UK, and this is something that Pimlico Flats picks up on in a blog post on the subject. The ability to verify Facebook users turns out to weed out the [...]
Thanks for the positive comments on Facebook marketplace, you make a very important point about trust and transparency. Would love to talk to you more about how you could use Facebook markeplace even more effectively, can I buy you a coffee?
[...] problems are plaguing Craigslist in the UK, and this is something that Pimlico Flats picks up on in a blog post on the subject. The ability to verify Facebook users turns out to weed out the [...]
I hope Gumtree dies now they killed dating. They only care about money.
I use OzAdz to find dates now and I recon it will help kill off Gumtree too.
http://www.ozadz.com/
Scam adverts on free sites like gumtree is a serious headache for tenants trying to find a property. They should look for sites where the landlord pays a small listing fee, at least then the chances are that the property is genuine!
I’ve well noticed something odd about Gumtree. All of the ads. I’ve replied to have been ignored, except the ones with the advertizers own e-mail address in the ad. All of THESE have replied.
I think there is a nutter messing about at Gumtree carrying out his/her own censorship — this will eventually bring down Gumtree with all the competion out there. OR, Gumtree has a “mole” beavering away to damage it.